Does anyone know why the colleague shop is open fully to olio coming in and getting all the reductions for free - Before the colleagues are allowed any, I can understand some of the reasons but surely "look after your staff and they........" would be appropriate here, in my store olio can take the whole lot from 830pm and there is very rarely anything left for staff. C'mon tesco if your going to do this then at least be honest and refrain from calling it a colleague shop anymore as clearly it no longer is !
It's purely PR thing.
If you dig into retail around the globe you notice a pattern. Employees should be grateful for having a job and deserves no extra perks.
there is usually 20-30 differing types of loaf and 10-20 types of vegetarian muck left over. And any nasty green veg.
Set yourself up as Olio (https://olioapp.com/en/getting-started-on-olio/what-is-olio/) anyone can.
Who or what is Olio?
olio is a food waste company that comes in at 8:30 in my store, colleague shop starts at 9.
Anyone can get free food from Olio through their app so it is not a charity. They have volunteers who come and take everything that has not sold when reduced so it does not get wasted. A great idea, but surely staff should be able to get colleague shop before they come in.
Typical Tesco, say they are helping colleagues and giving us perks but then make it impossible for us to access
General thorn my point exactly if its to be fair then it should be same time for everyone, as previous commenter just clarified too its not a charity so basically means anyone off street can register thier interest and get stuff at 830 but staff still cant if theyre at work (eg not finishing till 9)
So do Tesco get tax relief for donating to 'charity'? I'm guessing they do which would make business sense? 'Donating' to staff won't give the same tax breaks!
Some staff getting free food can be a emotive subject to those who miss out - giving our surplus to charity before any staff get a lookin avoids this.
For example Delia who only works mornings could be financially worse off than Jack, though because he does the lates and takes his break 9-9.30 he previously filled his freezer each night with free stuff.
I know in my store very little if anything goes thru colleague shop. Its normally just a few bunches of flowers each night.
The tax relief on donating to charity is miniscule in the scheme of things for big T and it is far less than the base cost of what's been donated. There is also a saving in the cost of waste disposal.
I was told Tesco pay Olio per collection. Now whether this is correct I'm not sure but it would explain stories I've heard from volunteers who have been reprimanded for non collections and had to find replacements for days they could not pick up.
Discussions have been had with managers as to why colleagues can not put by items just before Olio come in and buy them at 9 but this is taking items off sale and we would be subject to gross misconduct if found out. It was pointed out that Olio take everything offsale anyway so what would be the difference but Tesco do not allow for this.
The answer was to leave items we wanted onsale but then we took the risk of someone else buying it before colleague shop kicked in.
Obviously Tesco save money by not having to pay for so much waste to be processed and also it looks good that food is not being wasted but the poor, lowly paid colleague is missing out on their colleague shop which turns out not to be for colleagues.
"Reprimand for volunteers" :o if I was a volunteer they wouldn't see me again!
The problem with the staff shop is the temptation to stash aside is too great...many previous colleagues scams ruined it for all, hiding short codes coming up and then..." oh no! Look what I've just found!" It was the same when damages were wasted then sold discounted to staff or put in the staff room!
They blew it with far too many oops, butter fingers 😬
I don't know perhaps the volunteers get first dibs on what they have collected, perhaps saving themselves a small fortune and so would be reluctant to lose the job and the freebies even if getting 'reprimands'.
Quote from: lucgeo on 19-05-23, 04:44PM"Reprimand for volunteers" :o if I was a volunteer they wouldn't see me again!
The problem with the staff shop is the temptation to stash aside is too great...many previous colleagues scams ruined it for all, hiding short codes coming up and then..." oh no! Look what I've just found!" It was the same when damages were wasted then sold discounted to staff or put in the staff room!
They blew it with far too many oops, butter fingers 😬
Correct a selfish few blew it for everyone, one example I know an express store were suddenly found to be putting on cs almost 75 percent of meat and fish that ever got scanned on job 14 (or potentials to use modern parlance) of course it was soon highlighted and traced back to a shift leader who was bullying those below her (who happened to be young new ca's on the late shift) to say nothing about her little scam, people like that spoiled it for everyone although she really spoilt everything for herself as she lost her job.
Shift leaders making off with bags full of colleague shop items is a regular occurrence in our store, they hide them in the bakery and collect them on their way out in the evening.
I can only imagine it getting worse, once departments start doing their own stock control routines. A stockie will do a thorough product investigation, question the book stocks, question who put the stock back on that was wiped off yesterday but still not out, and go looking for the missing stock that is "in the back" ???
Unless it's closely monitored, then it's inevitable stock will be put aside in the little hidey holes, but it should be the manager who also takes the fall if they get caught out!
There's 'perks' in every company, the higher you go the bigger the 'perks'. Not saying it's right or fair, just saying.
We used to have sell offs in distribution, but that all stopped when people took advantage
There's a selfish guy on nights in my store who takes everything and comes in early to do so. Wouldn't think twice at taking a dozen sandwiches. Everyone loves when he is on holiday as they can get chance to get anything :D
Do unto others as they do unto you, or your colleagues. 8-) :thumbup:
Quote from: Twinkletoes on 20-05-23, 02:25PMThere's a selfish guy on nights in my store who takes everything and comes in early to do so. Wouldn't think twice at taking a dozen sandwiches. Everyone loves when he is on holiday as they can get chance to get anything :D
You're all as much to blame for letting him get away with it :o
He wouldn't do in my old store, pulled up on it, named and shamed by every colleague on his shift!
Greedy barstool :-X
If they are taking everything it comes under the policy, as staff are supposed to leave some for others.
Where does it say in the policy please? I'm looking for this information
Different policy in my store. All the reduced chilled products are taken off sale just before 9pm and then recorded as waste and bagged/boxed to be returned to the depot.
Ambient products that are not collected by the local food bank go in the canteen just prior to 10pm having been rescanned and stickered as colleague shop Price: Free.
Quote from: biggerpicture on 22-05-23, 09:18PMWhere does it say in the policy please? I'm looking for this information
You can find the policy by searching for "Colleague Shop Policy" on the ourtesco website.
Here is the part that mentions someone taking everything:
Quote from: ourtesco websiteThe following are examples of behaviors that are not within the colleague shop policy and could lead to a misconduct investigation:
- Damaging a product on purpose to acquire it for free.
- Not putting a product on sale when it is reduced to clear, preventing customers from making a purchase.
- Hiding a product in chillers and back of house.
- A single colleague taking all products and preventing others from buying it.
- Peeling off Colleague Shop stickers and applying these to other products.
- Opening the Colleague Shop early before donating to a charity.
- Placing Colleague Shop products into your trolley for an excessive amount of time prior to store closure.
- Using your Clubcard to purchase products for colleagues who don't have a Clubcard.
- Reducing an item not on today's expiry date.
- Selecting Colleague Shop items and processing through the till with your Clubcard or via the PDA and then placing them into a bin.
- Purchasing colleague shop items free of charge to be used in another business
- Manually reducing items before their last day of code and taking them for free
- During a Colleague search, a product is found, and you have no till receipt and the yellow colleague shop sticker does not match the product
Remember, products purchased should be for personal use only. If any colleagues or additional cardholders are found to be doing any of the above, an investigation will take place in line with our misconduct guidelines.
I forgot to mention that you have to do the search on the Tesco Help part of the ourtesco website at ourtesco.com/help
We only give Olio bakery. Everything in the reduced goes to Staff then the waste. However I'm an Express shift leader.
Misconduct or gross misconduct?
Not following the correct CS process or abusing it is usually viewed as gross misconduct, and has resulted in people getting the sack. All I will say is why put your job in peril for a few bits of free food its just not worth the risk as its all monitored and anything iffy is quickly passed on to the store manager who has to file a report back with his or her findings.
6 people in my store all got final warnings in the last 2 months. Most of them did think they would get the sack as they had been keeping stuff out the back re reducing it at the right time and then keeping it to gain it for free. Lucky they've all walked away with final warning but they are with you a year.
to be honest i've mentioned it before and challenged it, its something they still haven't changed despite how open the wording is to subjectiveness, if you read:
"A single colleague taking all products and preventing others from buying it."
- Can be viewed in multiple lights, but the primary problem with the wording is the "taking all products" - so if your brought in for taking 20 out of the 25 products, how can that be justified on a day vs a colleague doing it and there only being 5 items and they take 2 out of 5? etc, there isn't any wording about "capacity allowed", nor "reasonable amount", just "taking all", so as long as you left 1 or more, you'd be adhering to the policy..
"Reducing an item not on today's expiry date"
- needs adding in of exception in where store closure and special holidays etc affect this, like easter / christmas - otherwise many are guilty for it, meaning could be a case of discrimination on who they do target..
so 2 things atleast, but the first one is very open to interpretation and will definitely backfire on them...
I would read it as "all" meaning "all" as in everything! So if a colleague hasn't taken "all" then there's no case to answer!
You'll always get the greedy ones who ruin it for everyone else, in as much as bad feeling amongst staff. Then you'll get those who accuse others, causing more bad feeling. Then you get the day staff who moan they don't get it, then you have those who have stashed away...all for some cheap c**p that nobody else wants!
In our Superstore (we are not an Express or an Extra) we rarely have much left on the Chilled reduction mod at 9pm during the week and we close at midnight Mon - Sat.
However, on a Sunday the chilled reductions mod is cleared at 3pm and everything is given to the local food bank who come and collect it at 3.30pm as this is the 'only time they can come and get it' so they say.
This is not via Olio which we never see.
No chance of anything left on a Sunday and a lot of the staff are v, v peed off about it.
Is there a limit in value to how mach can be taken as i had a member of staff say they took quite a bit and when they went to he till although all marked a cs and after 9pm the till only allowed to take som much before it started charging for the rest ?
No, no limit unless that's just been brought in by Tesco. I haven't heard of it anyway.
the only limit is set by your colleague clubcard, the value comes out of that, so if it started charging for the rest maybe they've hit their £1500 limit? last change to the policy was early last year.
Quote from: General Thorn on 19-08-23, 06:09PMNo, no limit unless that's just been brought in by Tesco. I haven't heard of it anyway.
Iv just been to my local tesco to do the big shop as I normally do on the payday weekend. I had a random search at the scan as you shop and as the assistant reloaded my shopping onto the till he quietly said " you know we have a new rule on cs's? We had someone take two trolley loads of Cs and nothing else last week so now the rule is you are only allowed 2 of any one product " I had to leave a couple of items ,reduction areas were still heaving with products, something iv not seen for a while after 3pm on a Sunday.
I got 3 of the same item from the cs today & they all went through for free
Babybelle that must be store specific and I'm not sure that would actually work? I know I've taken more than 2 of the same items and not been turned down.
It's never happened before, the till didn't flag it up it was just a random search like they do on scan as you shop and as my bill loaded he must of noticed the cs's drop off my total. I had alcohol in my shop so I was expecting him to wait for the authorisation to flag up. He was lovely about it but I did feel a bit of a twonk re searching my shopping to make sure I only had two of what ever I'd picked up. If I'd not felt so shocked I'd of offered to pay for the 2 packs of meat and loaf that I had to leave. I don't go over kill with the Cs and I had spent over £125 on actual food. The reduced mods still had plenty left for others.
There isn't any official limit on the amount of items, the policy is on the tesco help rather than colleague help, which outlines that colleagues need to leave some for others.. Otherwise it can be seen as misconduct.
Misconduct would prompt a disciplinary...no specific policy...no misconduct...no disciplinary.
I went to a store last night (an Extra that closes at midnight) - it's not the store where I work - I didn't go with the intention of getting CS stuff - I was simply after some reduced label stuff (well that wasn't my sole reason for visiting - but as I was visiting at a certain time I decided I would check it out) - anyway - I entered the shop at 745pm - and as I walked in the entrance I noticed two very large deep trolleys filled with all the reductions (incl flowers/fruit/fresh/bakery) - and two people standing next to it - I presume this was the "food charity" - but 745pm seems awfully early to clear the shelves. Not that I mean to begrudge stuff going to charity (assuming it does) - but 745pm did seem very very early. Hey ho.
With regards to my store the colleague shop is a absolute farce esp on a Sunday you either have stuff been reduced and stashed then staff some managers appearing with a large amount of stock after 3 pm on a Sunday . But I laughed couple Sundays ago a lady who works instore who had finished had a massive deep trolly full she was with her son who hada half trolly filled with nothing but colleague shop stuff .. the girl who done the reductions said the staff member was with her son instore about 1415 and when the reductions filtered out they were all over them and she was still there at 1510 waiting for more . What is the actual company policy for stuff like that as I've allways been told don't take too much and aparently that lady was reported by the staff but duty was fine with her having 2 trolleys full ??